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Posted on 12/05/2010 1:07:39 AM PST by BlackVeil
The actor who voices the lion in the film adaptations of the books has angered some fans of the stories, who claim he is distorting Lewis’s intentions to be “politically correct”.
Aslan the lion features in all seven Narnia books, guiding children away from evil and harm and encouraging them to do good.
Lewis was clear that the Aslan was based on Christ, and once wrote of the character: “He is an invention giving an imaginary answer to the question: “What might Christ become like if there really were a world like Narnia?”.”
...But ahead of the release of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the third Narnia book to be made into a film, next week, Neeson said: “Aslan symbolises a Christlike figure, but he also symbolises for me Mohammed, Buddha and all the great spiritual leaders and prophets over the centuries.
“That’s who Aslan stands for as well as a mentor figure for kids – that’s what he means for me.”
...
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
This doesn’t anger me. Lewis’ allegory is too powerful to be diminished by a Holywood useless idiot such as Liam Neeson. All it does is prove to me that Neeson has no clue what he’s talking about...
Ping
I agree it is a powerful and rich allegory. Have you seen the latest film? If so what do you think of it? I think it simplifies the story and takes out some of the more complicated literary references to The Tempest and the Mystic Voyage themes.
I wished they didnt let this idiot ruin it for everyone with that quote. Too bad. He was great in Taken’ and the A-Team. The only time I’ll watch any Narnia movie is like the other 2...when my nephews and nieces start bothering me to watch it with them.
How long until the death fatwa is issued on Neeson? He can’t get away with saying Mohammed is that, can he?
An informative quote, many thanks for posting it.
Arguably, Voyage of the Dawn Treader is the novel which shows the most influence from Lewis' Irish background. It is reminiscent of the Immram genre of Irish literature.
Anybody who's actually read the series knows that the Calormenes are stand-ins for the Mahometans, and Tash for Allah. That's most obvious in The Horse and His Boy and The Last Battle.
Lewis drew heavily on the medieval and Renaissance literature for his Calormenes (not surprising, since that was his day job). They are obviously Turks and Persians as those people were known to Europeans of the 15th and 16th centuries.
Interestingly enough, though, the Calormenes are not outside the pale. Spoiler . . . one of them, Emeth, gets into heaven, and has a very interesting conversation with Aslan.
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